HBO's gritty Gold Rush drama Deadwood rides into town for a second season Sunday (9 p.m. ET/PT). It's a new year — 1877 — and the muddy, lawless camp is expanding, slowly becoming more civilized.

Gold and grit in the Wild West: Tim Olyphant and Ian McShane.

HBO

Very slowly.

Guest stars join the show, including Gerald McRaney as a historical figure. Old characters drift back, including Calamity Jane, played by Robin Weigert. And one of last season's actors, Garret Dillahunt, returns in an entirely new role.

The challenge this season — as with every show that enters its second season — is to build on its audience, to pull in more viewers than it did last season.

But last season, Deadwood didn't face a shootout with as daunting an opponent as ABC's Desperate Housewives.

When it premiered last March, Deadwood spurred much debate over its abundant profanity, even though it airs on a pay-cable channel and is exempt from Federal Communications Commission restrictions on broadcast indecency.

But the profanity, and equally abundant violence, did not put off viewers. More than 4 million tuned in weekly, about the same as Curb Your Enthusiasm's past season. That puts it slightly ahead of last season's Six Feet Under, though half or less of the typical audience of The Sopranos or Sex and the City.

And since Deadwood's first season, Walter Hill won an Emmy for directing the pilot, and Ian McShane won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of the lead character, saloon owner Al Swearengen.

"The show really made a dent last year in the viewer consciousness, and we hope to make that dent bigger," says Carolyn Strauss, president of HBO Entertainment. "Creatively, the show is really working on all pistons, or whatever that phrase is. I couldn't be happier with it."

She points out that David Milch (NYPD Blue), the creative force behind the show, chooses his words carefully. Many involved with the show refer to his work as "Shakespearean."

Says Strauss: "David has raised the spoken word on television to such an art form. I know for many people that will sound incongruous, because there's so much obscenity. But if viewers find it in their souls to look past that and see the construction of how people speak and how they express themselves, there's something so spectacular about it."

The cast is shooting its 12th and final episode of the season this week in California. What's ahead for the characters and show this season? According to the stars:

• William Sanderson, who plays E.B. Farnum, mayor and town toady, says, "I believe this season is more intense." He says viewers should expect "to see more humanity" from Swearengen, who is basically his boss.

He doesn't want to give plotlines away, but he says that "Farnum is going to be a great joy to watch. He's very important, and people will love him."

• Weigert, whose Calamity Jane drifted out of Deadwood in a drunken stupor last year after Wild Bill Hickok was killed, says, "She's deep in her drink for a lot of the season, still working in the aftermath of Bill's passing."

Playing a drunk is "an interesting challenge," she says. "I kind of love it. It requires a tremendous looseness and emotional fluidness and openness. A level of relaxation. It's a great place to inhabit."

Weigert says last season was "a lot heavier, a lot of painful scenes to play." This season, she says, will have more scenes that are "sweet and whimsical."

• Powers Boothe, who plays Cy Tolliver, a rival saloon owner to the slick Swearengen, says that for his character, "a lot of things are happening that are making him not as suave or comfortable."

Though the town makes more progress in its development, Boothe says, it's still a rough place. "To get up in the morning and wash your face is not an easy task, much less go to the toilet. Just to get through the normal tasks of the day," Boothe says. "These people were tough people."

Boothe says he has had a "nice career" in show business and had not opted to do a series until now. "When I read this script from the beginning, I thought: It combines a classical piece with a kind of modern film realism."

Every day is a challenge: "If you're not willing to fail and risk it, you're not going to get it with David. I go in there, and it's like listening to a master class."

Making it more fun for him this season is an addition to the cast: his daughter, Parisse Boothe, 21, who plays a prostitute in his saloon.

"My daughter's a hooker, and I'm her pimp," he says, laughing. "It's been beautiful for us."